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“I don’t have a problem,” Elaine says, carefully flipping her hair over her shoulder. “By the looks of your best prospect, I’d say you have the problem.”
“Elaine, God, stop being such a bitch!” Daria bursts out.
“Girls, let’s not do this in a mall,” Lindsey says.
Is that the best she can do? I know Elaine is her best friend, but I’m supposed to be her friend too. I’d think I’d get a little more support than that when Elaine is attacking me for no reason whatsoever.
“Alright,” Elaine gets up and walks out the door.
“What the fuck?” I ask, turning to look from one girl to the other. “Does she expect to me to follow her? Does she think we’re gonna ‘throw down’ in the parking lot?”
“She’s probably just cooling down,” Lindsey says. “I better go see if she’s okay.”
She hurries out into the blustery evening. Daria puts her arm around me and gives my shoulder a squeeze. I’m glad at least someone’s on my side.
“Why does Elaine hate me so much?” I ask, still bewildered.
“Oh, don’t worry about her, she’s just jealous,” Daria says.
Easy for her to say, since she doesn’t have to deal with it every day. I just don’t understand why Elaine is that nasty to me. She didn’t even want Todd, and I can’t think of any other reason she’d have to hate me. Daria’s solution to everything seems to be to just shrug it off, but I’m just not the sort of person who can let it go that easily.
I know I shouldn’t care that a raging bitch doesn’t like me, but it bothers me. Not knowing why makes it that much worse. Plus, Lindsey is loyal to a fault when it comes to Elaine. I don’t see how she can even be friends with someone like that—Lindsey is so nice you’d think she’d hate someone like Elaine.
Though I guess she’s too nice to hate anyone. Daria always just says Elaine is jealous of everyone, but I don’t see how she would ever be jealous of me, so there’s got to be some other reason.
Lindsey comes back in, shaking snowflakes off her coat. “She’s gone,” she says, sitting back down. “Chase is coming to get us.”
“She just left us here?” I ask incredulously.
“It’s okay,” Lindsey says. “She’s done it before. She doesn’t like confrontation, so when she gets mad, she just walks away.”
I gape at her, trying not to laugh at the idea that Elaine doesn’t like confrontation, since she’s always trying to start shit with me.
I cannot believe what Lindsey puts up with. She’s patient as a saint, but what does she get from her friendship with Elaine? It seems so one-sided.
“It doesn’t bother me that much,” she says, digging around in her purse and finding a pack of tissues. “Here, your makeup is all runny. It’s not like she left us stranded somewhere in a snowstorm. We’re just at the mall, and there are lots of people who could give us a ride.”
I wonder briefly why she called Chase and not her parents.
Or Elaine, for that matter.
five
Now Playing:
“Angry Anymore”—Ani DiFranco
I’ve never seen Chase look grumpy before, but he definitely looks it when he walks in. His keys dangle from his fingers, and he barely glances at us with a scowl that somehow still manages to be gorgeous.
It’s freezing cold outside, with a biting wind blowing snow straight into our faces. We all climb into the car without a word, the earlier giddiness gone. Chase turns up the music and drives out onto the road, turning on the wipers against the swirling flakes.
“What’s this?” I ask Daria, who’s in the back with me, huddled down in her puffer jacket.
“Are you serious?” she asks, drawing back.
I shrug. It sounds like an older band, but I never really got into the whole classic rock thing.
“Hey, Chase,” Daria yells over the music. “Sky wants to know what you’re listening to.” There’s a note of mockery under the disbelief in her voice.
